You are here

Palestinians express “solidarity with the people of Ferguson” in Mike Brown statement

Palestinian groups and individuals inside and outside of historic Palestine have signed the following statement in solidarity with their brethren in Ferguson, Missouri.

Unsurprisingly, many of the police deployed to crush unarmed protesters demanding justice for the brutal murder of eighteen-year-old black American Mike Brown are Israel-trained. Despotic tactics Palestinians largely associate with Israel’s colonial military, such as teargassing protesters and harassing journalists, have all been implemented in Ferguson.

Although Ferguson and Palestine are two different contexts, both places and their people are fighting against white supremacist regimes of oppression which continue to view them as “disposable others” and act accordingly.

The individuals who signed the statement below may not all know or agree with each other. However, the undersigned all believe that it is the moral responsibility of every Palestinian to support and foster relations with the struggles of the oppressed all over the world.

It is also worth noting that the Palestinian struggle for freedom is not a copy of the struggle of our black brothers and sisters both in the past and present. Neither is the black struggle a homogeneous one. Finally, the struggle of our black brethren is not a simple tool to “popularize” ours.

But the Civil Rights, anti-apartheid and anti-colonial movements in the United States, South Africa and foreign colonies across the African continent in the past offer us various models from which we should learn. In the present, Palestinians (though this does not apply to sell-outs such as Mahmoud Abbas and his minions) stand up against the despotism which the US, the settler-colony known as Israel, and various European and Arab governments embody.

Full statement

We the undersigned Palestinian individuals and groups express our solidarity with the family of Michael Brown, a young unarmed black man gunned down by police on August 9th in Ferguson, Missouri. We wish to express our support and solidarity with the people of Ferguson who have taken their struggle to the street, facing a militarized police occupation.

From all factions and sectors of our dislocated society, we send you our commitment to stand with you in your hour of pain and time of struggle against the oppression that continues to target our black brothers and sisters in nearly every aspect of their lives.

We understand your moral outrage. We empathize with your hurt and anger. We understand the impulse to rebel against the infrastructure of a racist capitalist system that systematically pushes you to the margins of humanity.

And we stand with you.

We recognize the disregard and disrespect for black bodies and black life endemic to the supremacist system that rules the land with wanton brutality. Your struggles through the ages have been an inspiration to us as we fight our own battles for basic human dignities. We continue to find inspiration and strength from your struggles through the ages and your revolutionary leaders, like Malcolm X, Huey Newton, Kwame Ture, Angela Davis, Fred Hampton, Bobby Seale and others.

We honor the life of Michael Brown, cut short less than a week before he was due to begin university. And we honor the far too many more killed in similar circumstances, motivated by racism and contempt for black life: Ezell Ford, John Crawford, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Tarika Wilson, Malcolm Ferguson, Renisha McBride, Amadou Diallo, Yvette Smith, Oscar Grant, Sean Bell, Kathryn Johnston, Rekia Boyd and too many others to count.

With a Black Power fist in the air, we salute the people of Ferguson and join in your demands for justice.

Signatories

Susan Abulhawa, novelist and activist

Linah Alsaafin, graduate student, SOAS

Budour Hassan

Rinad Abdulla, Professor, Birzeit University

Ramzy Baroud, Managing Editor, Middle East Eye

Diana Buttu, Lawyer, Palestine

Rana Baker, graduate student, SOAS

Abbas Hamideh, activist and organizer

Abir Kopty

Ahlam Muhtaseb, Professor, CSU

Alaa Milbes, Ramallah, Palestine

Alaa Marwan, Ramallah, Palestine

Nour Joudah, Washington DC

Ali Zbeidat, Sakhnin, Palestine

Areej Alragabi , Jerusalem, Palestine

Areej Saeb, student, Jerusalem

Asma Jaber

Beesan Ramadan, Nablus

Dina Zbidat, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Dr Jess Ghannam, UCSF

Huwaida Arraf, Attorney, New York

Nejma Awad, Tetra Tech DPK

Monadel Herzallah, USPCN, San Francisco Bay Area

Ghassan Hussein

Dinna Omar

Randa C. Issa

Amal Khoury, MD MPH, Washington, DC

Amani Barakat Moorpark, California

Fadi Quran

Fajr Harb

Falastine Dwikat, PCACBI

Hala Gabriel

Khaled Jarrar

Osama Ahmad, AMP Bay Area director

Hala Turjman

Halla Shoaibi, Birzeit University

Harun Arsalai

Zaid Shuaibi

Hurriyah Ziada

Dima Eleiwa, Shujaiyah, Gaza, Palestine

Jamil Salem, Birzeit University

Karam Saleem, International Solidarity Movement, Palestine

Khaled Barakat

Khuzama Hanoon, Palestine

Laila Awartani, Ramallah, Palestine

Lana Habash, Let’s Go There Collective

Lana Khoury, Washington DC

Yousef Aljamal, University of Malaysia

Safwan Hamdi

Leena Barakat

Lema Nazeeh, lawyer

Yara Kayyali Abbas, Palestine

Mariam Barghouti, Birzeit University

Mohammad Ayyad, graduate student, SOAS

Nader Elkhuzundar

Nancy Mansour, Existence is Resistance, New York/Palestine

Mohammed Alkhader, Birzeit University

Nazik Hassan, attorney, Riverside, California

Nora Taha

Rena Zuabi

Roleen Tafakji-Haidami

Samera Sood

Sana Ibrahim

Sherene Seikaly, UCSB

Taher Herzallah

Tamara Reem, Washington DC

Ahmad Nimer, Palestine

Riya Al’sanah, journalist, London

Alaa Milbes, Ramallah

Belal Dabour, Gaza doctor

Huda Asfour, PhD, Durham NC

Iyad Afalqa, Irvine, CA

Ruba Leech, Portland, OR

Rashad Al-Dabbagh, Network of Arab American Professionals

Maysoon Suleiman-Khatib, Civil Rights Specialist

Diana Alzeer, Ramallah, Palestine

Mona Kadah, Boston MA

Lucy Garbett, Jerusalem, Palestine

Hadeel Assali, Columbia University, NYC

Magid Shihade, Oakland, CA

Tamara Tamimi, Palestine

Hammam Farah, psychotherapist and editor

Dina Elmuti, Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture

Laila Hamdan, Portland OR

Bushra Shamma, VA, USA

Rev. Fahed Abuakel, Presbyterian minister , Atlanta, GA

Rehab Nazzal, artist, Canada

Ezees Silwady, Palestine

Dua’ Nakhala, freelance researcher, Belgium

Amal Oweis, Palestine

Shaheen Nassar, UCR

Amin Dallal, youth counselor

Dr. Tariq Shadid, surgeon

Zaha Hassan, Esq

Randa Issa, PhD

Murad Saleh, GED

Lila Sharif, Ph.D

Sa’ed Atshan, Ph.D

Rasha Khoury, MD Jerusalem

Hadeel Assali, Columbia University, NYC

Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi, Associate Professor of Race and Resistance Studies, San Francisco University

great show of solidarity. though i wonder how many of the undersigned support the rights of lgbtq... the point i make is that selectively standing up for rights (which i am sure is what many of these folks do) shouldn't be portrayed as a commitment to everyones rights.

I support LGBT rights... I also support all human and animal rights. I know many who also selectively support rights by not supporting animal rights, other living beings. I agree with you on the selectivity but I find very few are truly ego-less in supporting all rights and freedoms.

It is 2 in the morning here in Pittsburgh and I have been reading through the numerous cases such as Mike Brown's occuring in the United States this week alone. I have watched as the news that he stole cigarettes from a store prior to his shooting has emerged, the narrative has shifted to his death being warranted because he was shown to not be a perfect person. Following the story from the beginning I have been operating under the assumption that the theft was possible. I have not been upset that the life of a perfect person was taken this whole time but rather that of a human being, faults and all, appears to have occurred and that again the excuses for it have been the same racist defenses used all the time. That again a black man in the US was killed by those in positions of authority and when the community seeks answers they are met with a response that assumes they are savage brutes who can't be reasoned with in anyway but through force.
It is not anger that consumes me but disappointment as I try to talk to my diverse network whom far too many do not understand this plight nor care to because the progress they feel this country has made its far greater than what has been achieved. I have never been arrested or detained, to my knowledge my worst offense would be jaywalking and since the age of 20 I have been working, in college or both. However, the one time I needed the police to investigate someone shooting at my and neighbors' houses, I was met with questions that assumed the worst of my character. When I answered no to them all my mother was interviewed in the other room just loud enough for me to hear them call me a liar and state that my illegal or illicit acts that they believed had to exist were putting her in danger.

I sit on a board trying to spread word on Palestine. In the coming months that is the most I can offer as I juggle my time with that, work and college. However, once I graduate I will be free to do much more.

It is clearly a brutal murder by an Israel trained Polices officer. It looks all white police officers trained by Israel have been posted there for cleansing Black American from the city. If they do not prevail the justice "Hang the Murderer" than it is clear that these white police officers are there only for cleansing Black Americans.

You've connected the dots well intercontinentally. Whiteness is defined as historical, systemic race-based superiority. This structure is at the root of Israel's ethnic cleansing, apartheid, genocidal practices. Traditional Jewish religious belief about Jews being the "chosen people" lends itself to the Ashkenazi Jews' colonization and oppressive treatment of the original inhabitants of Palestine. Israelis massacred Palestinians, expelled or colonized survivors, and put them on two major "reservations" which they are constantly "mowing" and eroding. Despite censure from the vast majority of nations around the world, Israel continues as an outlaw, rogue settler-state today. White supremacy did the same to American Indians and Mexicans and, surprise, surprise, the USA was the first nation to recognize the State of Israel in 1948, some 15 minutes after Israelis declared their arrival/existence on the world stage. This mere fact suggests that the US found nothing reprehensible about the mass murders of Palestinian villages in which Israelis engaged during the year before Israel's birth. One rogue state supports the other, both founded on the same outrageous, despicable structure of Whiteness. If even today Israel continues its siege and choke-hold on the Gaza Strip, it's mostly because the US approves, supports, and abets Israel's war crimes and considers Israel as its major ally. So Whiteness supports Whiteness inside the US and outside its shores. The powerful pro-Israeli lobby in the US is effective in the political sphere through AIPAC. Some American Jews have historically played a key role in the Civil Rights Movement and fought to end discrimination and racism. But the more powerful American Jews today use their connection with Israel to keep White supremacy alive and well in the USA and abroad through the media-security-military industrial complex. Mike Brown's killer needs to be brought to justice. Palestinians need to be liberated from Israel's clutches.

I believe in total equal rights for every person on this planet. No one, I mean NO ONE should be above the law no matter what position they hold. I am a white person in the lower class society. I agree that racism plays a huge part of the problems going on in this world. What the majority of people don't realize is that lower class white people are being oppressed as well. For the most part it seems that the other races have the nerve and bravery to stand up to oppression the most, for that they have my respect and support. The bigger picture is; this is class warfare between the haves and havenots. All lower class societies around the world should stand together to take the power from the elitists in a peaceful manner. It is possible by not buying their products and services by buying local products. Take your money out of federal and national banks and use local and private banks. Stop buying at chain stores and buy form mom and pop stores and go to the farmers market for food. If we stop making them rich, then they will lose power over us. We out number the elitists, they need us to survive, we don't need them to survive.

I agree, 1% the elitist doing everything they can to keep the 99% disenfranchised. PEACE N GOOD WINS AGAINST RACISM, CLASSISM AND SEXISM. WE MUST DO WHAT WE HAVE TO DO TO BE FREE. THE GOVERNMENT IS FOR THE PEOPLE BY THE PEOPLE. THE WORKING POPULATION'S FRIEND, THE POOR, MISPLACED AND DISENFRANCHISED SINCE WE CAME TO AMERICA. JUSTICE WILL REIGN, RULE N PREVAIL. The poor whites have been used as pawns to death, murder, and kill others, OUR WHITE BROTHERS N SISTERS ARE TIRED OF BEING USED AND ABUSED AS WELL. UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL. We AFRIKANS AND DESCENDANTS OF AFRIKA BOUGHT HERE AS SLAVES, BUILT AMERICA THROUGH HARD LABOR, PATENTS FROM OUR INVENTIONS AND MONEY INVESTED ON WALL STREET. WE SEEK REPARATIONS THROUGH USURY,THE PRINCIPAL INVESTMENTS, AND PATENTS OF THE SAME.

I don't think Palestinians will ever understand just how much black Americans appreciate this support. Thank you so much, and know that the majority of us stand with you in solidarity against your oppressors as well. Your oppressors are also our oppressors. In peace, a black American woman